Part 06: The Great Beauty Illusion - Analysis of the Aesthetic Value of Liu Youju's Illusion Painting

Liu Youju's illusionist paintings present an extremely open artistic world, thus triggering an extremely open space for thinking. The most significant aspect of this is the reflection on how Chinese art can move forward in contemporary times.

Below are three thoughts that I feel the most deeply about myself. Of course, I am taking the position of Chinese aesthetics. I believe that the position of Chinese aesthetics is not necessarily conservative. Chinese aesthetics should be open to the new era and respond to the call of the times. The spirit and core of Chinese aesthetics can be highly modern through modern interpretation. So the position of Chinese aesthetics can be a creative one that embodies the spirit of the times.

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Will we usher in a more formal and spiritual art of painting in the new era? The art of presenting the emotional tone of life and the rhythm of the soul in a more direct and profound form of expression.

The reason why Liu Youju has always been paying attention to his painting creation is that Liu Youju has had many reflections and explorations on how modern Chinese painting can be modernized and how Chinese ink painting can move towards the world, which is a big issue before us.

Liu Youju believes that the brush and ink forms of Chinese painting permeate (present) people's spiritual temperament and personality ideals, which is the most valuable aspect of Chinese art. At the same time, he believes that today's painting should pay attention to spirituality, and the communication method required is not observation, but observation, which triggers the viewer's spiritual induction of the picture. Through local amplification and maximization, a special perspective of spiritual observation can be obtained, allowing the viewer to obtain a gradually lost spiritual satisfaction in the increasingly fast-paced urbanization survival state. This sense of satisfaction is not actually achieved through the creation of space, but rather through the escape from space. As a form of plastic arts, painting's outlet is not only to provide a visual experience or create a specific context to fill people's visual desires, but also to awaken a spiritual resonance by dispelling the efforts of "creating scenery" and "creating environment", providing a spiritual realm of stillness. I agree with this statement. Mr. Zong Baihua has an extremely exquisite discourse. Below, I would like to extend and showcase Mr. Zong's ideas.

Liu Youju believes that art must have spirituality, and without spirituality, it is not art. The best way to deal with stereotypical practices is through the artistic effects of painting. By updating the profound realm of thought, it pales in comparison. I believe that the creation of art is always a matter of image generation. So I don't agree with the idea of eliminating the distinction between art and non art. I believe that some "pop art" does not have any spiritual connotations and is not art. What I want to say here is that Chinese aesthetics particularly emphasizes the expression of human personality and temperament, life core, life sentiment, spiritual posture, and spiritual rhythm through art. Mr. Zong Baihua once again said that Chinese painting is an eternal "spiritual space", and Song and Yuan landscape painting is "the most spiritual art in the world". At the same time, Mr. Zong also said that in Chinese painting, the presentation of the soul is "an abstract expression of the brush and ink in the form of Chinese painting," "a spatial creation of calligraphy," and "a rhythmic art similar to music or dance. Mr. Zong has extensively discussed this aspect. For example, Mr. Zong said, "The characteristics of beauty and art are in 'form' and 'rhythm', and what it represents is the core of life, a dynamic and organized atmosphere of life. He repeatedly emphasized that art can best express the indescribable and indescribable mental postures and rhythms of human life. With art, people 'regain the center of life, achieving true freedom and true life', and 'the significance and value of art in life lies here'. Mr. Zong also said, "Chinese painting is really like a dance. The painter is unrestrained and unrestrained, and his spirit and focus are on the rhythm of the entire painting, without being stuck in the depiction of individual images." The painter used the flying pen and ink, "Yi Qi in his chest" (Ni Yunlin). Mr. Zong explained, "Yi Qi is freedom, the" transcendent rhythm of the soul. "Therefore, Chinese painting does not attach importance to the depiction of specific objects, And tend to express personal emotions and artistic conception through abstract brushwork. The image of the object flutters and sways, completely dissolving and blurring in the interweaving of ink dots and lines. Mr. Zong said that this is a "symphony of patterns" on Shang and Zhou bronze vessels. This symphony directly expresses the sentiment of life and penetrates into the core of objects. I think Mr. Zong's comments are extremely enlightening for us to contemplate the development of Chinese painting today.

The two important concepts of Chinese aesthetics, namely "ci qing" and "sheng qing", seem to have not attracted the attention of scholars and artists studying art. Chinese aesthetics believes that the form of a work of art is complex, so the meaning of the work of art is also complex. Any work is a combination and unity of "lyrical emotions" and "vocal emotions". This unity is imbalanced. However, for different categories of artistic works, Qing Dynasty aesthetician Liu Xizai discussed this issue. He said that 'fu' has less' vocal emotion 'and more' lyrical emotion ', so it is appropriate to' recite ', while' poetry 'has less' lyrical emotion' and more 'vocal emotion', so it is appropriate to 'sing'. This makes a lot of sense. Because poetry has fewer words and emotions but more sounds and emotions, Wang Fuzhi emphasized that poetry should be closer to music. It is precisely because the "sound and emotion" of poetry outweighs the "lyrical emotion" that poetry is difficult to translate. When Pushkin and Lemontov's poems are translated into Chinese, we cannot feel their beauty, but when we hear Russians reciting Pushkin and Lemontov's poems in Russian, we feel incredibly beautiful, although we may not necessarily understand their meaning. This is why "voice emotion" is better than "speech emotion". Mr. Ji Xianlin talked about poetry and also mentioned this point. He said that Li Shangyin's poetry is "rich in words and sonorous in sound", and "sometimes I don't know what I mean, but when I read it, I still feel the charm is elegant, the imagery is vivid, and it is like pure Western poetry". He said that poetry does not necessarily have to be understood, "the beauty of poetry's language and rhythm directly appeal to the human soul. Mr. Ji's words are very close to Wang Fuzhi's thoughts, especially the sentence "the beauty of poetry's wording and rhythm directly appeal to the soul of people", which contains profound aesthetic connotations.

Calligraphy art also belongs to this type of art where "voice emotion" is better than "lyrical emotion". The "sound and emotion" here refers to the "grass and emotion seal" meaning, which is the inherent meaning of the pen and ink form. The same article, written by different calligraphers, has completely different meanings and aesthetic values that people feel. Taking Liu Ling's "Ode to Drunken Virtue" as an example. Zhao Ziang wrote it with a natural and unrestrained style, with a sense of calmness and peace. The people of the Eight Great Mountains wrote it with a cold and rigid tone, with a sense of bitterness and stubbornness. Their meanings are different. So Mr. Shen Peng said that the form of calligraphy (pen and ink form) is the content (meaning).

The same goes for Beijing opera art. Its main meaning lies not in the plot and story of the "play", but in the actors' singing, reciting, doing, and performing. The same play, performed by different actors, can have completely different meanings. The same lyrics, sung by different actors, can have completely different meanings. So Beijing Opera is an art form of "characters", and the performance of different "characters" is different. The plot of the story is not the main thing, it mainly lies in the performance, but in the sound and emotion. So Beijing Opera audiences tend to enjoy watching older plays, not just the storyline, but mainly the performance. From this point of view, the beauty of Beijing Opera lies in calligraphy, which can be said to be a high grade art or a pure art. Without grasping this point, the development of Beijing Opera may go astray. Some people have reformed 'Battle of Red Cliffs' by bringing a big ship onto the stage, combining sound, electricity, and high technology, which makes it difficult for veteran audiences of Beijing Opera to accept. I think Chinese ink painting also belongs to this type of art where "sound emotion" is better than "emotional expression". The "meaning" of ink painting mainly lies not in "lyrical emotions" but in "vocal emotions", but in the charm and meaning of the ink form itself. The difference in aesthetic value of ink painting lies in this.

The brush and ink forms of ink and wash painting are the most direct expressions of life, spiritual rhythm, and personality. In the words of Mr. Ji Xianlin, the brush and ink forms of ink and wash painting can directly appeal to the human soul. The formalization of ink painting endows it with a spiritual aesthetic nature and a universal aesthetic character, making it relatively easy to cross the barriers of different cultural circles and gain more appreciation and love from people around the world.

The development of Chinese painting in the 21st century and its contemporary value may be the key to its aesthetics as it seeks to move towards the world. Although Mr. Wu Guanzhong's paintings have always been favored in the international art market, I always feel that his exploration of the contemporary development of Chinese painting seems to be blocked by something. Later on, I gradually realized that he may not have sought a breakthrough in directly expressing his soul in the form of pen and ink. Zhu Dequn seems to be better. In contrast, there are also some contemporary Chinese painters living in European and American countries who, influenced by Western art, may have a more open-minded perspective. Some of them have more breakthroughs, purification, and formalization in ink painting forms. From the perspective of aesthetic generation, they may be more in line with the aesthetic nature of ink painting, and their works may be appreciated and loved by more people worldwide. This issue has always inspired my thinking in the long run. Liu Youju's exploration and understanding, which emphasizes the structural relationship between the form of language, personality, spirituality, and spiritual content in the development of Chinese painting, seem to have made me think more clearly on this issue. Returning to what I said at the beginning, can we usher in a more formal and spiritual ink art in the 21st century? A form of ink itself is more direct An art that presents a deeper sense of life and spiritual rhythm.

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Will we usher in an art of creating a poetic atmosphere in the new era

Liu Youju's illusion painting is a poetic reality, with dreamlike objects that inspire us to turn back and pay attention to two phenomena in traditional Chinese cultural aesthetics. One phenomenon is that ancient people not only valued the aesthetics of art, but also valued the aesthetics of daily life. In other words, ancient people often pursued an artistic enjoyment in daily life, which is often manifested in creating a poetic atmosphere in daily life. Liking to drink tea is to create a poetic atmosphere amidst the aroma of tea; Liking to drink is to create a poetic atmosphere amidst the aroma of the wine. This tradition existed in ancient China, where the atmosphere of life was spiritual, cultural, and aesthetic; This atmosphere creates a scene, a realm of intention where things and I are the same, which is what aesthetics call beauty. This atmosphere, with spiritual connotations, often permeates the deepest part of a person's soul. The first is to cross the old boundaries of art genres, the second is to integrate high-tech means, and the third is to trigger the intersection of multiple sensory organs and aesthetics. The intersection of multiple sensory aesthetics is essentially a life experience, so the art of creating a poetic atmosphere is closer to life experience. The body aesthetics, which has been a hot topic of discussion in the Western Aesthetics Office in recent years, seems to be vaguely approaching this development trend on the surface.

Can modern art in the 21st century consider some positive attempts in the development of Western art while inheriting the metaphysical wisdom of traditional Chinese aesthetics to form a new development trend, which is to attempt to create a poetic atmosphere. Provide viewers with subtle aesthetic education and enjoyment.

At the beginning of the last century, Wang Guowei initiated aesthetic education in China, claiming that "artists are the religion of the upper class society"; In 1917, Cai Yuanpei even more loudly called for "replacing religion with aesthetic education", emphasizing the importance and responsibility of aesthetic education.

Artists spread progressive ideas and advanced culture, therefore, artists cannot exist passively, and their functions are not passively constrained by social ideology. Sartre believes that "the existence of an artist affects the overall existence of the future, and he embodies his role by intervening in the current existence, which is the overall existence of the living." This is the responsibility of the artist. However, the reality of society is full of bizarre and diverse phenomena. Many irresponsible secular painters, under the lure of profit, mass-produce traditional calligraphy and painting and engage in shameless behind the scenes "operations", and copy each other, becoming rampant, with a tendency towards vulgarity and craftsmanship. Sadly, once an artist loses their spiritual independence and depth, they lose the fundamental essence of being an artist, and they are no longer an artist. If art enters the stage of production, spiritual falsehood and vulgarization, it will also lose the function of aesthetic education.

In such an era of information explosion, moral reconstruction, and the prevalence of consumerism with a lack of humanity, social and cultural values are mutated and chaotic, and there is a lack of necessary humanistic spirit and positive aesthetic factors in the composition of values. Contemporary Chinese aesthetics urgently needs to be clarified, therefore, in the bustle of pan cultural pluralism, there is a greater need for the sound of nature from cultural essentialism.

(3)

In the new era, will we welcome painting art with higher ideological value and spiritual connotation

The Book of Changes states: "The metaphysical is the Tao, while the metaphysical is the implement. In painting creation, artists need to handle two aspects well: first, metaphysical thinking; The second is the statue from the bottom. The emotions, desires, intentions, concepts, passions, concepts, and artistic ideas of artists are the "meaning" before painting, which is intangible, conceptual, and abstract. By relying on visual techniques such as points and lines, black and white, ink and color, virtual and real, and hard and soft, they create tangible images, reflecting the artist's understanding and thinking. The mystery, grandeur, and depth of the painter's ideas before painting determine the depth and depth of the work. So, Chinese painting should be complacent and then take shape, and "freehand brushwork with form" is not as clever as "freehand brushwork with meaning".

Since the 1980s, the pursuit of "formal beauty" in the Chinese painting industry has become a hot trend. Instead of the "theme centered theory", the focus on content, theme, and spirit has been transformed into a passion for form. The pursuit of unique formal language has become the creative theme, and formalism has become a common trend. Content is empty, conceptualized, naturalistic, and formalistic works are common, which is a drawback.

Mr. Guo Yizhi said, "From a global perspective, the biggest problem faced by modern and contemporary painting art is not the lack of style or innovation, but the global problem of pale and declining spirit. Many works are produced and conceptualized, and some are still in the stage of primary imitation objects." He pointed out the drawbacks of modern and contemporary painting. Some painters only depict tigers, peonies or peonies, and yaks as yaks. Although there is a sense of delicacy and realism, there are obvious shortcomings - there is no spiritual connotation.

The innovation of Chinese painting in the last century focused on the integration of China and the West. However, we are more specific about the third style after the integration of China and the West, which is the combination of Western elements and my understanding of the East, and then developed into a style that is suitable for my own use. If this style solves this problem, Eastern and Western cultures are not contradictory. It depends on how you learn and absorb it, and the reason why China has developed to this day, It is not about closing the door, only the theory of China has developed to this day, so it is also constantly integrating and absorbing. Is the culture, education, and development of Chinese painting always the same as before? Whether it is the culture of the Tang Dynasty or the tradition of the Song Dynasty, as mentioned by Zhang Qiang, it is impossible for you to inherit all the traditions we are referring to. Because you haven't slept for 100 years at all, but with 5000 years of Chinese cultural tradition, you can't inherit it alone. Your so-called tradition is actually the point you are interested in and cannot represent China. The point you absorb may be a style, but its essence is completely different. So at this time, we should clearly identify our current spiritual language and values. In this situation, we should focus on contemporary times and rely on tradition, including research on current life and current theories, as well as the absorption of traditional nutrients. I think the focus should be on the present. Whether you are inheriting tradition or studying abroad, it is to serve me, rather than after studying, I worship under a tradition that we believe will continue like this forever.

As a traditional Western art, oil painting, including sculpture, printmaking, and so on, has almost always experienced an internal fission after entering the modern humanistic context, resulting in a purely abstract form of art. This is also an inevitable change in artistic form after entering the industrial society. Once upon a time, this abstract art became the mainstream in the Western art world, thus forming a diversified continuation of Western easel art to this day. The history of modern art development indicates that there are only two types of painting art from a general perspective: concrete and abstract.

Chinese painting, today more and more people refer to it as "ink and wash painting". While continuing the development of traditional figures, landscapes, flowers and birds in contemporary times, it naturally derives a new artistic form of "abstract ink and wash painting", which is a product of the times. Despite its slow arrival, abstract ink painting art in China has always existed and developed since the 1980s. Although abstract art has become a new tradition and classic in the West, art has no boundaries and endless exploration. Human civilization has always borrowed and inherited from each other. In addition to significant differences in material between abstract ink painting and Western abstract oil painting, especially in the expression of Eastern humanistic spirit, abstract ink painting has its own world in China.

China lacks a stage of industrial revolution, and in terms of time, it has almost stepped into the contemporary era from a semi feudal and semi colonial era, thus China also lacks a mature stage of modern art. Today, local modernity and contemporary art are intertwined and have blurred boundaries. Due to the unique nature of its own materials, as well as the deep-rooted mentality and techniques of traditional "imagery" creation, ink painting is particularly suitable for literati to express their emotions and ideas through materials and techniques, and has been enduring for thousands of years. Contemporary abstract ink painting faces significant difficulties and challenges in its development, and it is normal for it to remain marginalized to this day. Because of this, it has also stimulated the enthusiasm and interest of a few aspiring artists to explore.

We don't need to speak of abstract art as profound and mysterious. From a large perspective, what is similar or basically similar to natural objects is concrete representation, that is, realistic art; On the contrary, there is a non visual image that completely deviates from natural objects, which is abstract art. Abstract art itself is also diverse and constantly evolving. In the West, there are constitutive cold abstractions like Mondrian and Malevich, and passionate hot abstractions with expressionism like Kandinsky and Pollock. Human nature "is interconnected and common. On the basis of following the laws of art, Chinese abstract ink painting not only draws inspiration from the Western abstract art of" abandoning the specific image and content of the objective world, advocating the unconscious and irrational hot abstraction ", but also draws inspiration from the side of" abandoning the rational consciousness of the objective image and the constitutive cold abstraction "in Western abstract art. However, these references are not simply imitations and reproductions: the great differences in traditional culture between the East and the West, the differences in regions, the transformation of time and space, and the fact that ink painting is easy to write, heavy ink and light color, cannot be modified, and the characteristics and difficulties of materials that cannot be repeated multiple times, all of which make abstract ink painting face new exploration space. On the one hand, it lacks the profound level and tension of visual aesthetics in Western abstract oil painting art; On the other hand, facing the strong continuation and development of the highly mature traditional Chinese painting art in contemporary times (abstract ink painting is essentially also Chinese painting, but it is only a product of the reverse transformation of traditional Chinese art form), abstract ink painting can only survive awkwardly in a gap between Eastern and Western traditions and modern and contemporary concrete ink painting art, which also determines its inevitable marginalization fate. Disadvantages are often also an advantage, as marginalization also holds more energy for the future development of abstract ink painting.

Contemporary Western postmodernism has come to an end, and the reason for its end is that it has no direction and standards. Once art has no standards and directions, it will go to destruction. After entering postmodernism, the West realized that it had problems, and Hegel once said that Western philosophy would die. During World War II, Heidegger also realized this, and the Western theoretical system could not adapt to the subjective supremacy of social development. Human beings are constantly expanding, and in addition to art, it has also led to a wider range of natural and social problems, such as pollution, destruction, excessive development, and so on. Westerners are reflecting on themselves today, especially when nature retaliates against humanity, when human diseases spread, when individualism spreads, and when these natural and social phenomena arise, they are also reflecting on how to solve these problems. In the process of searching, they believe that Chinese Dao culture can solve problems. Dao culture respects nature, emphasizes the relationship between heaven and man, subjective and objective relationships, and humans should not be forced or plundered towards nature. The relationship between humans and nature must be straightened out. They found their own shortcomings in Chinese Taoist culture. Returning to nature is not only about art, but also about returning to the focus on nature and understanding of Chinese Taoist culture. Seeing this, history has brought some opportunities to Chinese art, and new possibilities have emerged for its development.

Against this backdrop, the development of contemporary Chinese art is an important topic. Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, artists have consciously or unconsciously felt the pressure of the strong infiltration of Western culture, which comes from our national and individual dignity. It also forces artists to create our own national culture and local art. At last year's National Critics' Annual Conference, theorists pondered and explored this issue. For the critical community, we are currently in a state of aphasia. On the one hand, traditional Chinese theory is not well connected to today's contemporary context; On the other hand, we are basically learning from the West now. Today's Chinese art looks rich and diverse, but in fact, this is a superficial phenomenon. Nowadays, the world has become very small, and artists need to seek innovation in the international context. They can no longer build cars behind closed doors, nor can they take things from the West more than a hundred years ago and think they are innovating. Now, unlike in the past, shrimp king, cat king, and peony king have swept the world with one move. Today's art environment has undergone tremendous changes, and we must possess various artistic knowledge and understanding of the artistic background in order to truly understand where the original essence of Chinese art lies.